August 20: 152.7 pounds and 36.5% body fat
August 22: 152.4 pounds and 36.0% body fat
August 23: 151 pounds - sadly, the body fat on my scale wasn't working
Sunday night, the final day of Week Three, I attempted a Mug Cake for dessert. Using coconut flour, egg, cacao, almond milk, melted butter, honey, and vanilla, you dump everything in the mug, stir, and microwave for two minutes. It's a flavorful dessert, but quite dry. I'm wondering if there's a better way to make this thing moist. I also learned that next time I need to mix everything in a bowl first, then transfer to the mug. I missed some coconut flour on the bottom of the mug and it does not taste good on its own, LOL.
Monday, August 24th was a rest day for me. Normally on my rest days, I'm at the gym doing my Jeff Horowitz "Quick Strength for Runners" workouts (plus additional upper body and core work), but today I felt like I really needed the rest and would focus on making my Nike goal through walking at work. It's going to get hot again this week, so focusing on hydration is going to be pretty big. Dinner Monday night was some ahi tuna from Scott's fishing trip. I worried a little about leaving it on the counter all day in the water - but neither of us got sick so all was well :)
And I'm embarrassed to say that Tuesday, August 25th was ANOTHER rest day for me. I'm finding that I'm not sleeping well this week. So that put me behind on marathon training for the time being. With this week being the week before classes start at PCC, there's alot going on and several early mornings. Tuesday was pay day, so lunch was a Double Chicken Chopped Salad at Subway; dinner was Charles' cheat meal, a combo at Super Burger (best fast food burger in LA county!). I had an avocado cheeseburger, but as a lettuce wrap. Strangely enough, I was totally hungry before going to bed! That may be a reason why I'm still not sleeping well.
Yes, you heard that correctly. For the third night in a row, I had trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. I don't know if I can attribute that to keto, stress, or the heat. I may need to try a sleep aid if things don't get better fast. Lack of sleep is not helping my marathon training.
Wednesday, August 26th was NOT a rest day! I made it to the gym at exactly 5am and did Coach Jenny's 36 minute treadmill hill workout, followed by a few quick minutes of upper body weights and core. Wednesday was an early work day for me, and I could not risk missing another workout. Dinner Wednesday night was a delicious although slightly overdone roast that Charles made. It had a very fun chimichurri sauce. We also had tomato/cucumber salad and steamed asparagus. For dessert I made myself a vanilla mug cake. It was much sweeter and less dry than the chocolate mug cake I made on Sunday night. I need to buy some heavy cream so I can have whipped cream on top of the cake next time!!
I decided to take something on Wednesday night to help me sleep - I can't say for sure if it worked or not, because I still woke up in the middle of the night to go pee. And strangely enough, I do think I'm experiencing a late stage of keto flu. Thursday morning was a little rough getting up, but I did manage to get up and run for 70 minutes (5.5 miles). Breakfast was fantastic - Charles made bacon and also made me a cheese omelette. The walk to work was awful because I didn't stretch and it's so dang hot in SoCal right now. I also got to make Thursday dinner which was a really fun shrimp and avocado salad with a cilantro/balsamic dressing. Yummy!
Friday morning was supposed to be a 7 mile run, and I slept late :( Friday was also Welcome Day at the college, so I spent Friday morning out in the heat welcoming students and talking to them and their parents about scholarships. I have a love/hate relationship with events like this. The meeting and greeting is fantastic, but the swamp-ass and bra-pool-drip that I had from the heat was fun. I was not looking forward to the walk home.
And then...the bottom fell out. By the time I got home - with dog food, Hammer gels, and a few other grocery items, I had thrown Keto out the window. We were hosting Phoebe, our business partner, for dinner; rather than cook we opted to order a pizza. So. Totally. Not. Keto. And then Saturday fell away, too. Had leftover pizza for breakfast, ice cream for a snack, pasta for "lunch" (which was at like 3:30pm) and conned into a Brazilian Steak House for dinner. Which was probably the closest thing to a Ketogenic meal I ate all day. I was so full after that meal, it was as though the entire experiment was a complete and total bust.
That's when a girl like me has to forgive herself and remember that (a) this entire four week journey was an experiment; and (b) I am only human. While I would have been more proud of my research had I finished the work week correctly, I still fully intend to have my "closure meal" on Sunday evening as planned and move onto the next phase.
So, in closing, how do I reflect on the past four weeks?
The Ketogenic way of life is not for everyone. There takes a certain amount of discipline to stick to a low carb, high fat diet and lifestyle. And while the first two weeks were pretty fun and I was definitely learning the smart ways to go low-carb, I found myself VERY bored in this final week and DESPERATELY missing fruit. Which is why it's probably good that Fruitarian is my next experiment.
What did I enjoy the most about the Ketogenic lifestyle? Cheese. Copious amounts of cheese.
And avocado. Those foods will never tire for me. But I'm about done with eggs and coconut oil. Coconut Flour, however, is a totally beautiful thing! I really liked the mug cakes and microwave "breads" that I made! This makes me excited about moving into the Paleo and Blood Type experiments that will come later this year.
And avocado. Those foods will never tire for me. But I'm about done with eggs and coconut oil. Coconut Flour, however, is a totally beautiful thing! I really liked the mug cakes and microwave "breads" that I made! This makes me excited about moving into the Paleo and Blood Type experiments that will come later this year.
I was very surprised that I can train well on a high-fat/low-carb diet. Really no "bonking" to speak of. I also saw that I definitely lost some body fat percentage (although hard to track this the past week because my scale is out of whack - i think it needs new batteries). And I also lose inches. That was the best part! I can easily see how some endurance athletes are drawn to this diet. I think it I wanted to try the experiment again for training purposes, I would need to invest in the ketosticks and possibly even get permission from a doctor to monitor my ketones in a blood test. Maybe that is something I can do next year following the Hog Eye Marathon.
Finally, I used MANY resources for the ketogenic diet. Pinterest was super helpful in finding recipes and pictures of super awesome meals. Podcasts that were great included:
Livin' La Vida Low Carb (Jimmy Moore)
Ben Greenfield
The Ketovangelist
And I found a few free Kindle ebooks to download on Amazon with Kindle Unlimited:
Bacon and Butter
Keto-Adapted
Practical Keto Plan for Endurance Athletes
As this phase closes out, and Fruitarian begins, please know that you can ask me any questions about my experiment with the Ketogenic diet. Remember, however, that I'm not a physician or dietician, so my opinions are just that and I'm not giving medical advice.
thanks to everyone who followed me on this particular phase of the Fall Diet Experiments. 80/10/10...here I come!!
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